Windows only: KidsMenu is a kid-friendly way to corral your kids towards pre-selected applications and keep them out of trouble when they are on your computer.

Although KidsMenu can be run from within your Windows account to create a simple application launcher for your child, the real benefit of KidsMenu is when you use it as a full-on Windows shell replacement. Create a limited account for your child, and when you run KidsMenu for the first time in that account you can press ALT+CTRL+I to set KidsMenu as the default interface for Windows when logged into that account. From that point forward, instead of being presented with a overly complicated start menu and all the sub-menus they don't need, your child will instead see something like the screenshot above—customized with your own background and programs of course.

Note: the screenshot above is from the developer's website. We download and test every item we write up here and this one is no exception, but I had no kid-friendly applications to populate the menus with beyond the basic Windows games, which made for a rather pathetic-looking screen shot. For other ways you can create a locked-down environment for kids on your computer—without having to log in and out of separate user accounts—makes sure to check out previously reviewed KidZui and KidRocket. KidsMenu is freeware, Windows only.